Use, problems and prospects of soybean in infant weaning practices in Africa

Access to nutritious food by poor people is being increasingly hindered by the failure of the food security system, and diminishing real income value, in most African countries undergoing Structural Adjustment Programme. Hence, nutritional disorders such as protein energy malnutrition, xerophthalmia, anaemia, low birth weight, stunting and wasting are on in the increase. Although soybean is used in quite a number of African countries as a weaning food, there are still problems such as lack of technical know-how for its processing into infant foods, cultural practices which favour the use of cereal rather than legumes for weaning infants and the long cooking time. In spite of this, the prospects for the crop as infant food is becoming brighter, and some ways of achieving this are discussed.